Commemoration of the Tsar

Russian emigres soon started plans for memorials to Nicholas II and his family. This image shows a Brussels church during construction which was dedicated to “the memory of the tsar-martyr Nicholas II and all Russians murdered by the godless authorities”. The picture comes from a 1938 book printed in Estonia called Emperor Nicholas II and the revolution by Ivan Iakobii. All profits from the book’s sale, we are told, would go to the completion of the church’s construction. In practice, the church would open its doors only after the end of the Second World War. Our copy of the book bears the ownership stamp of Nikolai Pashennyi (1896-1978), a Russian emigre who settled eventually in France.

Back in Ekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk for most of the Soviet period), the house in which the Romanovs were killed was pulled down in late 1977. Eventually in the early 2000s, an Orthodox cathedral was built on the site – Khram na krovi, the Cathedral on the Blood.